Goals have yet to materialize at a rate familiar to Katie Shields, but amid the frustration of a second straight tie the St. 不良研究所导航网址 University women鈥檚 soccer coach found reasons to feel better about the 23rd-ranked Billikens.
SLU earned a 1-1 draw against No. 4 BYU on Thursday night at Hermann Stadium as Emily Gaebe scored the first and only goal for the team in two outings.
She continued to generate most of the scoring chances.
The Billikens have been among the highest scoring teams in the country in recent seasons but continued to seek a breakthrough with a game at Mizzou coming Sunday.
鈥淚 hate ties,鈥 Shields said. 鈥淭he game was kind of what I expected. I just thought it would be a little higher scoring. I鈥檓 still not thrilled with how we started, especially at home. I think there鈥檚 still more within us that we have to keep finding. This was the pace we need to play with and the type of team we need to play to get us going.鈥
SLU was saved in the second half by goalkeeper Emily Puricelli, one of three SLU players who have received All-America honors, as she made three tough saves among her eight for the night.
That was enough to keep BYU from adding to the one goal it tallied in the 68th聽minute after Gaebe鈥檚 first-half score.
Through two games, the senior first-team All-American has been credited with seven of SLU鈥檚 12 shots on goal.
鈥淲e have to hang onto the ball a little more than just having these one-offs to Gaebe,鈥 Shields said. 鈥淲e also have to get some of our players into more dangerous spots. They have to take care of possessions. 鈥 It will come. We鈥檙e asking a lot of physical demand on Hannah Larson and some others have to take the load off her defensively so she can join Gaebe.鈥
Much of the second half was spent fending off BYU鈥檚 attacks in front of 4,023 fans. The Cougars outshot the Billikens 9-7 on goal and generated 12 corner kicks while the Billikens had only three.
Puricelli had the biggest individual moments, diving left and laying out to make one stop and then flicking a point-blank shot from about 12 yards over the cross bar not long after.
鈥淚鈥檓 thankful my defenders helped take away a little of the angle and I covered as much of the goal as I could,鈥 she said of the point-blank shot. "This was going to be a good challenge. Our defense did a good job blocking shots as much as they could, taking on fire and trying to help as much as possible.鈥
Said Shields: 鈥淓mily is just so special, which is why I say she鈥檚 the best in the country. She came to SLU at a high level, and she鈥檚 still eager to grow and continues to grow.鈥
Part of the issue in progressing offensively has been the use of six true or redshirt freshmen in the midfield or at forward in two games. Most of those players were on the field at times against BYU.
In the first half, freshmen Hope Kim and Sarah Sarnowski nearly combined on a spectacular goal, but Sarnowski鈥檚 header of Kim鈥檚 crossing pass went slightly wide.
鈥淭hey鈥檙e trying to figure it out against a top-five team,鈥 Shields said. 鈥淪o, they鈥檙e playing on their edges and making mistakes, but I didn鈥檛 feel like they were freshmen.
Gaebe started as she did in the season opener, creating scoring chances out of nothing. Her early barrage of shots against Kansas City a week earlier all were stopped despite being dangerous.
She again had an early opportunity against BYU, hitting a crisp, curling left-footer that required a diving save. Given another chance, Gaebe didn鈥檛 miss.
When a BYU midfielder sent an errant pass toward her goalkeeper, Gaebe was able to intercept the ball. She then beat a defender one-on-one to create another shot off her left foot and this one curled past goalkeeper Lynette Hernaez.
The Billikens didn鈥檛 score in the run of play, relying on a penalty kick for their goal and missing another that would have given them a draw.
St. 不良研究所导航网址 University goalkeeper Emily Puricelli (1) makes a save during second half action of a game against Brigham Young University on Thursday, Aug. 22, 2024, at Hermann Stadium. Photo by Laurie Skrivan, lskrivan@post-dispatch.com